It's snowing in Vegas...yippee...

Yes, it is true. Snow is falling in Vegas. For most people this brings joy... we can build a snow man! We might get a day off school! Yay! But, not me. Right now I hate snow. Snow has caused me to be stranded. That is right, they closed down the airport and I am stuck in San Francisco. Sure, I am stranded at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, so I am sure no one feels bad for me, but still, stranded! I had to wait in line 4 1/2 hours to get rescheduled on a flight tomorrow night out of SAN JOSE and hope that it doesn't get cancelled again. Yippee, another 24 hours here. But, if you don't want to read my self pity post, you can see the fun to be had in the snow at my sisters' blogs here and here. Snow fun!

So, I've been tagged....

Rules:
1.Post rules on your blog
2. Answer the six '8' items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. So You Think You Can Dance! (dance, dance dance)
2. 30 Rock (funniest show on TV)
3. The Office
4. Heroes
5. Chuck
6. Gossip Girl (true guilty pleasure)
7. The Soup (Shout out to Joel McHale!)
8. Ugly Betty

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Went to a SEC Reporting Conference in San Francisco
2. Ate Peking Duck in Chinatown in San Francisco
3. Rode a cable car in San Francisco (did I mention I am in San Francisco?)
4. Talked to Julie
5. Wrote an email to my brother in Russia
6. Did online Christmas shopping
7. Took a really long, really hot shower
8. Blog stalked several people (I'll never tell who...)

8 Things I look forward to
1. Christmas!
2. Getting home (Vegas is snowed in)
3. Seeing baby Reed!
4. Seeing Stone Temple Pilots in January
5. The day I no longer have to work
6. Summer
7. Going to Russia
8. Jared coming home!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Mantra Masala
2. Waffles! (They serve nothing but waffles, it is amazing)
3. Serendipity 3
4. The Melting Pot
5. Archi's
6. Barry's Drive In (That one is for you Kaira!)
7. Mon Ami Gabi
8. California Pizza Kitchen

8 things on Wishlist
1. All versions of Singstar
2. Hard wood floors for my house
3. New camera
4. Photography skills to use new camera
5. Perfect skin/hair/body
6. Christian Louboutin shoes
7. Finding a job that pays me not to work
8. Diamonds. Lots of Diamonds.

8 People to Tag
I can't decide... so anyone who wants to!

Seeing your boss dance on a pole makes it all worth it...

For the most part, I have a great life. I have wonderful friends, (perhaps you have heard of my new serious relationship with Cropstar and The Other One?), I have a great family, I have a great job, I am happy. I get alot of pity looks when people find out I am (gasp!) single, but really, I am good. However, once a year an event occurs that causes me to curse my single status, causes me to scream out, why, oh why me? That event is the annual company Christmas party.

I have to believe the planner of the Christmas party has no evil intent. They want to give the hard working people a chance to have fun, and perhaps create an opportunity to see the boss (and his wife who is wearing shiny pants) do a pole dance. These are worthy goals. But, in reality, it is a group of people who usually feel a bit awkward, dragging around significant others, who feel even more awkward, but who come as safety blanket/reflection of their life outside of work.

For those of us without this safety blanket, we are forced to come up with temporary solutions that will make us look like amazing, put together people. This is not the place to bring blind dates, this is not the place for 2nd string guys. This is a place to shine. Seeing as how this is my 6th corporate Christmas party, I knew what I was looking for. A good friend, who would bring no date drama, who could carry on a conversation, circle the room like a pro, and owned a suit. After going through my phone directory, I found my man. It was perfect. He agreed to go with me, all was right in the world.

This is where the story takes a turn for the worse. The day before the party, I was unceremoniously dumped! By my friend! So much for no date drama. He "got back together with his girlfriend" and "didn't feel right about dating other girls". Since when was this a date? You were my wing man. This was a business transaction, pure and simple. But apparently after 4 years of friendship, this was my big move, cause apparently I am in love with him. And to tell me THE DAY BEFORE. That is inexcusable. I don't even have words.

Long story short, I didn't go alone, I found someone tall enough to allow me to wear heels, but did not have the "carry on a conversation" requirement down. But, there was the aforementioned pole dancing, a drunk Santa trying to break dance, and the head of HR dancing for $1 bills. We were all winners in that room.

The morale of this story, alcohol plus music plus middle aged men equals funny.

Oh, and I only have 12 months to find a date to next year's Christmas party. Wish me luck!

What I have to be thankful for...

As today is the day before Thanksgiving, I was reflecting on what I have to be thankful for. I have quite alot. I really have a good life. However, in this post I want to focus on one specific item, I am thankful for friends with free concert tickets. I have one standing rule in life. If ever a friend calls and says "I have 2 free tickets, wanna go with me?", I respond with "Absolutely I do.". Every time. No matter what. This is how I was at an Eve 6 concert and had the lead singer dedicate "Superhero girl" to me, this is how I got to see Kid Rock and Rev Run do "It's Tricky", and this is how last weekend I saw the Backstreet Boys.

Apparently BSB used to have 5 people, and now they only have 4. I am sure one guy stole the other guys' hair gel or something serious like that. So, without further ado, introducing the BSB!!! (All pictures taken with my phone, so not the best)

Nick Carter!!! Bald Guy!!!
Guy I've never ever seen before!!!
Small fry!!!

They started out the show with a boxing ring, which involved alot of intricate dance moves involving holding onto the ropes. I wonder if that is any kind of metaphor for their careers?

They did all the cliche boy band moves. Dancing in a line. Dancing in a line with leather jackets. Sitting on chairs singing ballads while wearing suits. Dancing with chairs. The only regret I have is that they did not wear all white. That would have made my night.

These boys are getting old. To emphasize this fact, and to show how haggard they really are, they showed their old videos on the big screen while singing their old hits. Not a good idea.

Overall, amazing, but a little disappointing. I had no idea they had so many ballads. There were not nearly the number of dance sequences I would have liked. And, since most of their songs were slow, they did alot of dancing involving leaning, snapping, and swaying. Remember, this is coming from a girl who has seen NKOTB. Twice. Just for the record, NKOTB=awesome, BSB=not so awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Glad I didn't waste THOSE 10 dollars...

So, overall verdict, movie is way better than the book. How often does that happen? However, the movie had laugh out loud moments that were not indended to be funny. The first time you see the Cullens family, I think we were supposed to be awed by their super coolness and their beauty. Instead, the entire theater bust up laughing at the white faced mime makeup and way overstyled hair. Ridiculous. Hair and makeup people probably should be shot. But, storyline was much improved as we didn't have to hear all of Bella's inner dialog and we didn't have to hear any of her physical descriptions of Edward. And, the screenwriter, who is obviously more talented than Ms. Meyers, added the aspect that Bella and Edward actually had conversations. About things. Shocking I know. So, movie is a cute teen romance movie, I would recommend seeing if you want a cute, fluffy movie. And, if you are one of those who haven't read the book, just skip it and see the movie instead. You'll be better off.

One of THOSE girls...

Let me just state, for the record, I do not understand the Twilight craze. I am not really anti-Twilight, just annoyed by its popularity. (How anyone can compare this drivel to Harry Potter is beyond me.) It is overrated, and it says that infatuation is the same thing as true love. And, I truly am sad for people who say this is the best book they have ever read. I would like to introduce them to a little thing I like to call "literature". But, all that aside, I can respect Twilight as a trashy and addicting guilty pleasure.

I started reading book 1 about the time book 3 was released, because I wanted to understand what everyone was talking about. Book 1 was basically 500 pages of creepy vampire stalking, followed by a lot of “you're pretty, no, you're pretty”, then concluding with about 40 pages of action. "She falls down a lot" is about as much attention as gets paid to character development. Overall impression, I was kind of bored, very underwhelmed. I liked it ok, but by no means did I LOVE it, and I couldn't understand what everyone was all obsessed over.

For me, book 2 was slightly better for one reason, and one reason only, Jacob. I loved Jacob. He was funny, he was handy with tools, and he was tall and a werewolf. What isn't to love? But, book 2 also began my hatred of Bella. She is void of any personality, so obnoxiously whiny and very stupid, mostly because she couldn't see that the better choice of Jacob was sitting right in front of her. No wonder she was depressed when Edward went away, he was the most interesting thing about her. She is a horrible heroine. But, despite the Bella hate, it was ok, and I liked it enough to move to book 3 (mostly to hear more about that Jacob).

Book 3 was more of the same. Edward, Jacob, fighting over Bella, Bella being whiny and in mortal danger (again), written with physical descriptions of Edward to replace any character development. (We get it, he is hot. Move on already.) For the life of me, I can't understand why either Edward or Jacob would like (excuse me, I mean love) Bella. They are both too good for her, and I think they should just drop her, and go off and start a crime fighting force together. Awesome, right? And, I know Edward and Bella are supposed to have some deep soul mate thing going on, but I just can't see it. Infatuation? Yes. Physical attraction? Of course yes, the entire plot line is bogged down with descriptions of Edward's sparkly body and marble abs. True love? Hardly.

Book 4 is the worst of the lot. Not only did it include that creepy human/vampire baby (wouldn't you be creeped out if your baby had teeth?) with the worst name ever, it was long just for the sake of being long. I mean seriously, doesn't the woman have an editor? Why did we need all these side stories and tangents that in no way drove the plot? Why on earth would she take the time to give back-story to a woman Jacob sees in a crowd who never reappears anywhere in the story? Why did Bella need to get a fake passport that was never used? Why were these important? And, to top it all off, we STILL have to hear Bella wonder why Edward chose her. Guess what, we are all wondering why a 100 year old vampire would want an annoying teenage girl who has no personality or opinions of her own, but we have all just accepted it. Maybe you should too. Why oh why am I reading book 4?

Now we have the movie. I wanted to see it, mostly because my biggest beef with the books was poor writing. I figured someone else would have written the screenplay, and maybe it would be better. However, I didn't want to see it opening night and be one of THOSE girls. However, here I am, opening night, holding a ticket to the movie. After reading my book reviews, I am sure you are all super excited to hear my movie review! Just you wait!

Subconsciously saving this date for 15 years...

I had the twice in a lifetime experience of seeing NKOTB again this past weekend in Salt Lake! I was waiting to post about the weekend of fun until I got all the pictures from my official photographers, (hint hint Christy and Melinda) because apparently I can't take pictures for myself, so until then you will have to see the weekend sans photos!

The show was amazing, as expected. Although I loved both shows ALOT, I think if I had to pick a favorite, I would pick the Las Vegas show, only because of the anticipation and first time excitement of it all. And, because Donnie called the Vegas audience "the sexy house" which he purposefully did not say in Salt Lake. The Salt Lake crowd had the Las Vegas crowd beat hands down in one very obvious area, the costumes. You can always count on those Mormons to dress up! There was crimped hair, florescent colors, puffy painted shirts as far as the eye could see. It was quite amazing.

The other highlight of the weekend was the food. Oh, the glorious food. For some reason, lately I can't seem to eat enough. What else is new, right? But really, it has been quite shocking the amount I have consumed. Perhaps my body is just prepping for Thanksgiving next week. I actually grossed out a waiter at Chili's by ordering a 2 item combo plate, complete with sides. He didn't think I could eat the entire meal, I told him I would eat it all AND get dessert. He laughed. He obviously doesn't know me. The sad part of it all, I totally won that bet, and it wasn't even a challenge. The weekend also included a trip to my favorite bakery, Shirley's, for some good homemade cinnamon rolls, and the discovery of a new favorite, J-Dawgs. Hands down, the best hot dog I have ever consumed, and trust me, I have consumed quite a few. (Tyson, I am actually quite upset with you about this one! In the past year, all the times I have been to Provo to visit you, and not one mention of J-Dawgs? What, were you keeping the secret to yourself? To think, I could have been eating these all along!)

In a long line of pictures of me eating, here is the latest, with Melinda and Christy, enjoying a perfect hot dog moment:

Bliss. It was an amazing weekend, good food, dressing up, photo sessions, NKOTB, but most importantly, great friends. Thanks for going girls!

Reconnecting with my iPod...

Total miles driven today: 70
Total hours spent waiting in traffic: 2.5
Going to the Nordstrom Half-Yearly sale and buying these boots:

PRICELESS. (Except not, cause they charged me. Apparently they have found a way to put a price on my happiness.)

My work self is killing my self self...

I want to apologize that my blog has been rather disappointing as of late. And, I also want to apologize for being so pretentious as to assume people care enough about my blog to be disappointed. The truth of my boring life is that I have been working a lot lately. When I work a lot, my life is boring and repetitive, and not interesting enough to provide any ideas for blog entries. But, my big report was filed Monday morning, and now I can try to get back to normal. And by normal, I mean playing Singstar and working on my synchronized running routine. (If you didn't laugh at that, it means you didn't watch 30 Rock this week. Shame on you. Go to nbc.com immediately and watch last week's episode. Funniest show on TV people.)

Tomorrow should be a fun day. To celebrate our filing on Monday, my company is taking the accounting department to an afternoon movie at the new Aliante Casino. Really, I don't care so much about the movie, but being away from work in the middle of the afternoon, now that makes all the 12 hour days, weekends, and overall stress completely worth it.

Also, this weekend I may or may not be driving to Utah to brave the snow and cold to see NKOTB in concert again. And, to get a hot dog. I hear they have good ones up there. Totally worth the drive. You are totally excited, right? As previously promised, here are some pictures from the night of New Kids to get ready for this weekend!

Pre-show anticipation. Nervous excitement!


During the show, Jordan doing his solo dance and ripping off his shirt:

Shot of the stage. Pure magic people.

After the show enjoying our new paraphernalia and basking in the post concert glow:

Don't mess with Eva Destrukshun...

Reasons Halloween was awesome:
1. Roller skates. Best way to get around, no doubt.
2. Mohawk. Life dream come true.
3. Michael Phelps. There were 4 at one party alone.
4. Fremont Street. No better place to wear roller skates.

This year for Halloween, I was 1 member of a 3 girl roller derby team**, the Viva Las Vegas. It was an excellent costume idea, and even better in execution, if I must say so myself. And, thanks to Melinda, I was able to have a mohawk, which is quite possibly the best thing I have ever done to my hair, and pretty much completed the look. My new goal is to figure out how to do a mohawk on my own. I need that look in my arsenal for special occasions, such as a concert or the upcoming company Christmas party. We topped off the night with a trip to Fremont Street to take pictures and skate around, which was by far my favorite part of the evening. People were shouting out to us, stopping us to take pictures, and they totally got our roller derby names. (I was Eva Destrukshun.) We did discover roller skating on Fremont Street is against a Las Vegas city ordinance, but who could have foreseen that?


All three members of our roller derby team, Eva Destrukshun, Megan Bleed, and Cobra:
Full body shot. That's right, those skates stayed on all night, and I didn't fall once.

Roller girls with Rod "Hot Rod" Kimball, Megan, and winner of the best costume award, Missy Earl as Teen Wolf:

The mastermind and creator of the mohawk
My favorite Michael Phelps of all: The backs of the team uniform, and a pretty good mohawk profile:Down on Fremont Street with a crazy guy:

Action shot. Look how graceful we are:

A nice profile of the amazing mohawk. Yes, those cornrows go all the way around, and no, the tattoo isn't real.

And, what my hair looked like after sleeping in the mohawk, wearing it under a hat all day, and then taking out the braids. I think it is a winner.

Overall, Halloween, big success. Good times had by all!

**For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with roller derby (Tyson), roller derby is a sport in which 2 teams skate around a rink and score points by passing members of the opposite team. The opposite team tries to stop them. It is awesome. There is a league here in Vegas, and we like to go watch them play, which is what inspired the costumes.

Good life decisions...

This week was a week of good life decisions.

Good life decision #1 - Starting a new job. I left a job where I was ruled by the Chinese (bad) to working for Americans (good). I also have a very grown up title "Director of Financial Reporting". I feel like I have accidentally stumbled into a career and have no idea how I got where I am, but I am glad and lucky and happy. It is going to be a good move for me (I think - I said that about the last job too.)

Good life decision #2 - Playing Singstar with Christy. I don't think I even need to explain more about that one, anyone can see how that would improve life.

Good life decision #3 - Seeing Flogging Molly in concert for the first time ever. I love love love them. This would fall into my top 5 concerts of all time (and yes, that top 5 also includes NKOTB). For those of you reading this saying to yourself "who is Flogging Molly?" I must scold you and direct you immediately to their website so that you improve your life with Irish Rock.

Good life decision #4 - Eating a pumpkin waffle at "Waffles", a new restaurant here selling nothing but waffles. (You would never guess from the name, right?) It was amazing, it had carmel syrup, whipped cream, powdered sugar. It has changed my life. For those of you in Las Vegas, the address is 5165 Fort Apache, near Trop and Fort Apache. I suggest you go right now.

So, obviously, good week.

I love roller derby...

I have a not so secret desire to be a roller derby girl. Last June, Cropstar found one of the greatest discoveries and hidden secrets of Las Vegas... we have a Las Vegas roller derby team, the Sin City Rollergirls. I highly suggest you check out their website here. We attended our first match in June, and we were hooked. It just looked like so much fun! The skating, the outfits, the throwing other girls to the ground! We immediately started planning our training schedule so that we too may become roller derby girls. Step one was to buy roller skates, step two was to relearn to skate seeing as how I have not been on a pair of skates for years. Sadly, we have not kept up with our training.

But, last night, the fire was lit again inside, as I attended the first roller derby match of the season. It was all I hoped it would be. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures to share, for two reasons. First, my camera battery died during the national anthem. Second, my official life photographer decided hiking was more important than roller derby. I don't know what she was thinking.

So, I may not be ready to be an official roller derby girl yet, but thankfully Halloween is upon us and I can live out my fantasy. Those of you spending Halloween in Las Vegas will have the pleasure of seeing all 7 members of our team, Viva Las Vegas, out in force, skating up a storm. The question I must now pose to the blogging world... what should my roller derby girl name be? For those of you unfamiliar with the roller derby world, you should know that every roller derby girl has a name, for example, Ruth O'Dare or Rose Shambo. I was thinking of Private Dancer perhaps? I need help! Suggestions?

I still believe in magic...

The magical Genius tool in my previous post has made me recall something that must be shared. A few weeks ago during a sleepover, Cropstar and I pulled out my old "All About Me" book from when I was 8 years old. I sure hope everyone out there had one of these. Below are a few direct quotes (original spelling):

If a fairy godmother suddenly appeared in my room one night and said I could have three wishes, I would wish:
(Written in my handwriting)
1. To be rich
2. to have madads (no idea what that was supposed to be)
3. to live in a machon (mansion)

(in my mom's handwriting)
1. Have peace in the world
2. Have anything I want come true
3. Help hunger and the homeless be taken care of

A few journal entries from the back of the book:
March, 1988, time 8:44pm: "Today started fine then evrey body hated me it has been going on for a long time."

September 23, 1987, Time 9:06pm: "Today I thought about magic" (My personal favorite, because still a common occurrence today.)

Maybe I AM a Genius...

Has anyone besides me discovered the beauty of the new iTunes Genius tool? If not, let me give you a brief rundown. Select a song in your library, the sidebar tells you songs by the same artist you are missing in your library, and suggests songs by other artists you might like. Click the Genius button, and magically a playlist is created using only songs in your library that are prefect compliments to the song you have selected. Like I said, magic. I feel like both a brilliant maker of playlists, and at the same time, a little embarrassed by songs that are actually IN my library. I swear I have NO IDEA how Ashlee Simpson ended up in my library. I didn't do it, I promise!

Making 5th grade fantasies come true...

In the 5th grade, I was a very big fan of New Kids on the Block. I had pins, I had cards, I even had dolls (but not as many as Melinda, the ultimate fan). When I found out they were coming to Las Vegas in concert, I was totally excited and asked my mom if I could go. My mother felt I was too young, and told me I couldn't go, which resulted in tears. Then, the day of the concert, a girl in my class told me she had an extra ticket and I could go with her if I wanted! Happiness! Joy! I hurried home after school to ask my mom, and after much begging and pleading, she finally agreed. Brace yourself for tragedy, I then realized I didn't have a number or address for the girl in my class, and no way to contact her. Needless to say, more tears followed this night.

Saturday night, after 20 years of waiting, I saw New Kids in the Block. BEST.CONCERT.EVER. (I have been to alot of concerts. ALOT. That is a big statement.) I screamed, I yelled, I became a 12 year old girl. There may have even been tears. I am not even at all embarrassed to admit this. They still look good, they can still sing, and more importantly, they can still dance. I thought, being 40 year old men, they might hold back. I was wrong! These old men pulled all the same moves from way back when, there was even break dancing! Break dancing! Sure, they may have had to ice down their hips afterwards, but they did it, and it looked good.

To add even more magic to an already magical night, we even got moved from the nosebleeds to side stage left, just because of our energy and obvious enthusiasm. When Jordan ripped off the shirt for the dancing in the fan, we were right there. After the show ended, and we watched them exit the stage, all we could do was hug each other. We didn't even have words. We knew Donnie was right, we HAD subconsciously kept that night open for 15 years. And, it was worth it.

Needless to say, this can't be the last time I see NKOTB. Tickets are still available for the Salt Lake City show, and I am taking a road trip. Who is coming with me?

***Pictures are coming once Melissa gets them downloaded!!!

My new favorite outfit...

I think this is totally worth $200, right?

Because I love cake...

I am a new member of the blogging community. I was reluctant at first, considering the pressure to be super funny/witty in each and every post, because let's face it, I am just super funny/witty in person. Always. But, Kaira has inspired me. If Kaira can do it, so can I, so here I am.

All good blogs must start with a great picture, which is why I have spent the past hour looking at pictures of myself only to discover I have far too many pictures of me eating or with my mouth hanging open. Why do I do this? What is it that possesses me to think I will look better with my mouth open?

But, you can't tell me you don't want a cupcake now...

This blog is dedicated to Kaira....

I did it. Happy?